Reporting snapshot · 10 November 2026 (Asia/Karachi). The match is still live — Sri Lanka resume on day three 320 runs behind — and the Pakistan Cricket Board has not confirmed whether the second Test stays in Lahore. The scores here are the day's play as reported at the close of play, not a live scorecard.
Pakistan declared their first innings at 434 for 9 after 106.3 overs on the second day of the opening Test against Sri Lanka at the Rawalpindi Cricket Stadium on Tuesday, 10 November, and then took three wickets in the visitors’ reply to leave Sri Lanka 114 for 3 at the close of play, still 320 runs behind. The ICC’s report of the day said Pakistan had strengthened their position in the opening World Test Championship contest, with the lower order lifting them past 400 and the new ball striking early in Sri Lanka’s innings.
The day belonged, in the end, to the new men. Three of the four players handed Test debuts on Monday in the Rawalpindi opener — Tayyab Arif, Mohammad Taha and Arafat Minhas — are among the five batters to reach a half-century in the innings. The News International reported that five batters, including three debutants, scored half-centuries as Pakistan reached 434 for 9 in 106.3 overs.
Shakeel falls seven short of a hundred
Saud Shakeel carried the innings. The Express Tribune’s day-two report recorded him resuming on 57 overnight, and The News International had him dismissed for 93 from 199 deliveries with nine fours, seven runs short of what would have been his fifth Test century. Wicketkeeper Kusal Mendis took the catch off Asitha Fernando at 393 for 7 in the 100th over, and the ICC’s account described it as a fine catch.
Shakeel and Ghazi Ghori rebuilt after Pakistan had lost five wickets for 253 on the opening day, and their sixth-wicket partnership carried the total past 300 before Ghori fell for 48 from 72 balls, caught by Pasindu Sooriyabandara off Dilshan Madushanka at 349 for 6. Arafat Minhas, on debut, then hit 52 from 72 balls with nine fours and a six for a maiden Test fifty, before Dhananjaya de Silva caught him off Madushanka at 434 for 8. Razaullah made 10 and Saqib Khan was unbeaten on nought when Babar Azam called the innings. Asitha Fernando took three for 107 and Madushanka three for 108, with Lahiru Kumara, Milan Rathnayake and Sonal Dinusha taking one apiece.
Two wickets in three overs, then a recovery
Sri Lanka’s reply began badly. Mohammad Abbas edged Pasindu Sooriyabandara to wicketkeeper Ghazi Ghori in the third over for a duck, and in the next over the 31-year-old debutant Saqib Khan had Dinesh Chandimal caught by Agha Salman for one from three balls, his maiden international wicket, leaving the visitors 12 for 2. The News International recorded that Sooriyabandara was dismissed after seven deliveries and that Sri Lanka were 12 for 2 after 3.3 overs.
Saqib, who finished with two for 54 from 10.1 overs, struck again to remove Lahiru Udara for 42 from 52 balls, caught by Ghori, with Sri Lanka 65 for 3. Udara and Kamindu Mendis had put on 53 for the third wicket, and Mendis and de Silva then carried Sri Lanka past 100 with an unbroken fourth-wicket partnership before bad light ended play at 114 for 3 after 27.1 overs. Mendis was unbeaten on 40 and de Silva on 22 not out, and the ICC’s account of the day listed the same dismissals and the same 320-run deficit.
The second Test may move to Rawalpindi
Away from the pitch, the series itself is unsettled. The Express Tribune reported on Tuesday that Pakistan Cricket Board officials are concerned about deteriorating air quality in Lahore and have discussed moving the second Test, scheduled for the Gaddafi Stadium from 17 to 21 November, to Rawalpindi, with the consultations said to be at an early stage. If the proposal is approved, Rawalpindi would host both matches.
The ICC’s series schedule still lists Lahore for the second Test, so the switch remains a proposal rather than a confirmed change of fixture. Lahore’s air quality has been in the news this week as well: Punjab has blamed drifting pollution from India for a reading above 600 on the air quality index.
A lead to protect, and a rebuild to prove
Pakistan resume on day three with a first-innings lead of 320 and Sri Lanka holding seven wickets. Mendis and de Silva are still at the crease, and Sri Lanka’s problem is the collapse around them: two wickets went down inside the first four overs and a third with 16.5 overs gone, leaving the rest of the innings to the older players in a side that Mendis said before the match had a very experienced senior bowling unit.
That is the same match-up the selectors set out to test in a side rebuilt after seven players and two coaches were removed in September, with the squad then reshaped again by a late addition of three uncapped players. The debutants have now answered the question the toss raised: Arif and Taha reached fifty on the opening day, Minhas struck a maiden Test fifty on the second, and Saqib took two wickets in his first Test. KhabarWire is tracking the campaign in its Pakistan Cricket hub.
Whether that is enough will not be settled on a single afternoon. The pitch is two days into a five-day match, Sri Lanka have seven wickets in hand and a night to reset, and the second Test — wherever it is played — has not yet been given a confirmed venue.
